Phenacomys cf. intermedius, the heather vole, is known from three late Pleistocene and early Holocene localities on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where they are absent today. This study reports the heather vole specimens from one of these sites, P2 Cave, and provides a human behavioural context for its presence and eventual extirpation as a consequence of changing environments. Heather vole is a cold-adapted rodent. The early Holocene thermal maximum and subsequent development of coastal western hemlock forests contributed to its Vancouver Island extinction without an apparent corresponding range restriction in higher elevation habitats as has been noted elsewhere in Western North America. Tendency for low population densities in closed-canopy forests, antisocial intraspecies behaviours, and limited immigration across fragmented habitats supported local extinction. The absence of heather vole in the modern environment elsewhere along the coasts of British Columbia, Southeast Alaska, and Washington is probably due to similar factors as are highlighted here. Toward environmental reconstruction and the archaeological setting this study suggests that humans are unlikely to have occupied the Vancouver Island area during a hiatus in the vertebrate faunal record including the cold-adapted heather vole from about 19 700 to 14 700 years ago when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet extended west to the continental shelf. Improved environmental conditions for humans occurred both before and after this time. It also suggests that the glacial conditions in which the heather vole occupied Vancouver Island diverge from the Holocene interglacial setting that has seen an expansion of a human presence and of the corresponding archaeological record.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
June 14, 2022
Late Pleistocene heather vole, Phenacomys, on the North Pacific Coast of North America: environments, local extinctions, and archaeological implications
Martina L. Steffen
Martina L. Steffen
a
School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
Search for other works by this author on:
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (2022) 59 (10): 708–721.
Article history
received:
28 Oct 2021
accepted:
09 Jun 2022
accepted-manuscript:
14 Jun 2022
first online:
09 Nov 2022
Citation
Martina L. Steffen; Late Pleistocene heather vole, Phenacomys, on the North Pacific Coast of North America: environments, local extinctions, and archaeological implications. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 2022;; 59 (10): 708–721. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2021-0116
Download citation file:
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Email alerts
Index Terms/Descriptors
- absolute age
- archaeology
- British Columbia
- C-14
- Canada
- carbon
- Cenozoic
- Chordata
- Cricetidae
- Eutheria
- Holocene
- isotopes
- lithostratigraphy
- lower Holocene
- Mammalia
- Myomorpha
- North America
- paleoclimatology
- Pleistocene
- Quaternary
- radioactive isotopes
- refugia
- Rodentia
- Tetrapoda
- Theria
- upper Pleistocene
- Vancouver Island
- Vertebrata
- Western Canada
- Wisconsinan
- Phenacomys intermedius
- Port Eliza Cave
- Arch-2 Cave
- P2 Cave
Latitude & Longitude
Citing articles via
Related Articles
Related Book Content
Geoecology of the Marias River Canyon, Montana, USA: Landscape Influence on Human Use and Preservation of Late Holocene Archaeological and Vertebrate Remains
Geoecology of the Marias River Canyon, Montana, USA: Landscape Influence on Human Use and Preservation of Late Holocene Archaeological and Vertebrate Remains
Timing of the emergence of the Europe–Sicily bridge (40–17 cal ka BP) and its implications for the spread of modern humans
Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene History of the Donnelly Ranch Vertebrate Site, Southeastern Colorado
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene History of the Donnelly Ranch Vertebrate Site, Southeastern Colorado
Friesenhahn Cave: Late Pleistocene paleoecology and predator-prey relationships of mammoths with an extinct scimitar cat
Late Cretaceous to Quaternary Strata and Fossils of Texas: Field Excursions Celebrating 125 Years of GSA and Texas Geology, GSA South-Central Section Meeting, Austin, Texas, April 2013